Sunday, March 17, 2002
These things go to eleven!
Posted by marlof in "ARTICLE" @ 08:06 AM
The coming days you'll see the Möbius 2002 and Cebit 2002 reports coming from Jason, who kept a journal and shot many pictures while attending both events. But today I wanted to share with you my thoughts on the Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition and the Smartphone 2002.
Above I present to you the players in my Thought, from left to right: HP Jornada 928 WDA, Microsoft/Texas Instruments Smartphone 2002 reference design, Sendo Z100, HTC XDA (first to be introduced by mmO2 as the O2 XDA in Europe).
I played with all four devices for some time, and I must admit that they all looked great to me. The idea of having built in internet connectivity to my Pocket PC has always appealed to me. I've been connected using my iPAQ 3870 over Bluetooth to a GPRS phone, and I love the fact that one can have access to email, mobile sites, the corporate network, etc. from just about anyplace in my country. The things I don't like though is that at times, when I leave my phone in my bag, and keep the Pocket PC with me, I will lose connection when the distance between the two devices gets bigger than Bluetooth cares for. Next to that, Bluetooth does eat into the battery life of both phone and PDA. So although I love Bluetooth functionality (when it works.... ask Ed), I would still prefer one device combining the big screen for good email reading, browsing etc. with the GPRS conncectivity. That's why although a PDA/phone connection works for me, I still have my mind set on a Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition.
I do think the name "Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition" doesn't do the WDA/XDA justice. To me the biggest difference between a regular Pocket PC 2002 and these units is not as much that they can act as a phone. To be honest, I don't really see myself using this one as my only mobile phone. I might use it as a phone incidentally. Seeing the integration between the other applications and the phone application made me feel it would be pretty easy to do. But the size (albeit not bigger than a current Pocket PC) would prevent me to use it as a phone on a day-to-day basis. It is small enough for a Pocket PC, but still pretty big for a mobile phone. From the feature set the wireless connectivity to the net over GPRS is far more important to me. I think of these units as Pocket PCs that can always be connected to the net, and next to that double as a phone. But I still don't know a better generic name for a device like this. Anyone else?
Does my enthusiasm for the Phone Edition mean that I don't want a Smartphone 2002? No way. I want one too. At times when I go out at night, I will not bring my Pocket PC. All I bring is my GSM phone. But although my Ericsson T39 has POP3 email connectivity, the small screen is not suited for reading lengthy messages. Next to that, I'd like to have a full featured set of contacts, tasks and appointements with me at all times, so when I have to check things, I know it's all there. I want a phone that doubles as a PDA for the moments where size is important. That's where the Smartphone kicks in when I'm dreaming about my future setup. The Smartphone doesn't pretend to be a shrinked down full fledge Pocket PC. The smaller hardware platform brings limitations and those are taken into consideration. But within those limitations, the feature set is still highly impressive! And with the OS targeted at one handed operation for all its tasks, I think going from a mobile phone to a Smartphone will feel like a natural progression.
And ever since Möbius I've been more aware than ever that I'll have to convince the office to put up a Mobile Information Server 2002. I've seen wireless Activesync straight to Exchange data in action, and it simply rocks! While you're away from the office, you can confirm meeting requests, and you get to check the latest email, appointments and tasks. Keeping the latest PIM information at your fingertips is one of the major goals of any PDA. With hardware and software solutions like this, there's no more need to have outdated information with you at anytime. This is a big progress for all those scenarios where work means being mobile.
I'm really looking forward to the future of wireless connected devices. And I do hope that there will be many different suppliers to choose from within a year from now. So with much anticipation I'll be keeping my eye out for further announcements in the Smartphone/Phone Edition camp. If I've learned one thing from my hands on experiences, it's that these things go to eleven!
Above I present to you the players in my Thought, from left to right: HP Jornada 928 WDA, Microsoft/Texas Instruments Smartphone 2002 reference design, Sendo Z100, HTC XDA (first to be introduced by mmO2 as the O2 XDA in Europe).
I played with all four devices for some time, and I must admit that they all looked great to me. The idea of having built in internet connectivity to my Pocket PC has always appealed to me. I've been connected using my iPAQ 3870 over Bluetooth to a GPRS phone, and I love the fact that one can have access to email, mobile sites, the corporate network, etc. from just about anyplace in my country. The things I don't like though is that at times, when I leave my phone in my bag, and keep the Pocket PC with me, I will lose connection when the distance between the two devices gets bigger than Bluetooth cares for. Next to that, Bluetooth does eat into the battery life of both phone and PDA. So although I love Bluetooth functionality (when it works.... ask Ed), I would still prefer one device combining the big screen for good email reading, browsing etc. with the GPRS conncectivity. That's why although a PDA/phone connection works for me, I still have my mind set on a Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition.
I do think the name "Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition" doesn't do the WDA/XDA justice. To me the biggest difference between a regular Pocket PC 2002 and these units is not as much that they can act as a phone. To be honest, I don't really see myself using this one as my only mobile phone. I might use it as a phone incidentally. Seeing the integration between the other applications and the phone application made me feel it would be pretty easy to do. But the size (albeit not bigger than a current Pocket PC) would prevent me to use it as a phone on a day-to-day basis. It is small enough for a Pocket PC, but still pretty big for a mobile phone. From the feature set the wireless connectivity to the net over GPRS is far more important to me. I think of these units as Pocket PCs that can always be connected to the net, and next to that double as a phone. But I still don't know a better generic name for a device like this. Anyone else?
Does my enthusiasm for the Phone Edition mean that I don't want a Smartphone 2002? No way. I want one too. At times when I go out at night, I will not bring my Pocket PC. All I bring is my GSM phone. But although my Ericsson T39 has POP3 email connectivity, the small screen is not suited for reading lengthy messages. Next to that, I'd like to have a full featured set of contacts, tasks and appointements with me at all times, so when I have to check things, I know it's all there. I want a phone that doubles as a PDA for the moments where size is important. That's where the Smartphone kicks in when I'm dreaming about my future setup. The Smartphone doesn't pretend to be a shrinked down full fledge Pocket PC. The smaller hardware platform brings limitations and those are taken into consideration. But within those limitations, the feature set is still highly impressive! And with the OS targeted at one handed operation for all its tasks, I think going from a mobile phone to a Smartphone will feel like a natural progression.
And ever since Möbius I've been more aware than ever that I'll have to convince the office to put up a Mobile Information Server 2002. I've seen wireless Activesync straight to Exchange data in action, and it simply rocks! While you're away from the office, you can confirm meeting requests, and you get to check the latest email, appointments and tasks. Keeping the latest PIM information at your fingertips is one of the major goals of any PDA. With hardware and software solutions like this, there's no more need to have outdated information with you at anytime. This is a big progress for all those scenarios where work means being mobile.
I'm really looking forward to the future of wireless connected devices. And I do hope that there will be many different suppliers to choose from within a year from now. So with much anticipation I'll be keeping my eye out for further announcements in the Smartphone/Phone Edition camp. If I've learned one thing from my hands on experiences, it's that these things go to eleven!
